i. IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

In Book VI of the Dēnkard, which deals in some detail with the driyōš and his way of life (driyōšīh), he is described, on the authority of the ancient fathers of the Mazdean faith (pōryōtkēšān), as “he to whom the worldly means of subsistence is merely toward keeping the body hale and healthy (tuwān xwāstag ī gētīg rāy tan padēxw ud bawandag), whereupon he is with peace of mind (axw aziš āsānīg), of contented disposition (menišn padiš hunsand), and free from distress (widang); he does not hold the reputable (čašmag) and the opulent (tuwānīg) in disrespect (tar-menišn) but behaves himself in such a way as if to say: ‘He with his reputation and wealth, (compared) with my (pious) indigence (driyōšīh), he is (just a creature) the same as I am’” (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 504). Driyōšīh is lavishly praised as the most excellent way of life, and the people are advised to promote its diffusion (pad mayān kunēd; Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 503). He who takes to poverty not out of necessity but because of excellence and the nobility (wehīh ud burzišn) of holy indigence (driyōšīh) drives away Ahriman and the demons from the world. Only he who takes greater joy from the least means of subsistence than from abundance of wealth can bear the hardships of holy poverty (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 503). Men and women living in holy indigence are revered on a par with the righteous men (ahlawān), that is, as a group within the priestly estate: “I celebrate the righteous men and women; I celebrate (yazom) the driyōš men and women” (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 621).

In the Dēnkard (ed. Madan, p. 588) the requisite features are distinguished from the indispensable features of driyōšīh (čārag ud ačārag ī driyōšīh). The former are designated as diligence (tuxšāgīh) and moderation (paymānīgīh), the latter, constituting the quintessence of driyōšīh, as contentment (hunsandīh) and right-mindedness (bawandag-menišnīh). Of these contentment is the most significant epithet of driyōšīh, however. The renowned doctor of Zoroastrianism Ādurbād ī Mahrspandān set it out to be the best human quality, which merits the greatest hope of attaining the blessings of the world to come (hunsandīh . . . wuzurgtom umēd ī mēnōg; Pahlavi Texts, ed. Jamasp-Asana, p. 67), and the high priest Ādurbād ī Zarduštān, in spite of his affluence and high spiritual office, prided himself upon his diligence and moderation in life as a driyōš (Pahlavi Texts, ed. Jamasp-Asana, p. 81). Contentment was also regarded as the preeminent characteristic of the mystical dervishes in Islam (see ii, below). For example, the poet Ḥāfeż wrote: “If there is any merit to be gained in this world, it is that attained by the contented darvīš. O Lord, grant me the blessings of holy indigence and contentment” (Dar īn bāzār agar sūdī’st bā darvīš-e ḵorsand ast/Ḵodāyā monʿam am gardān be darvīšī o ḵorsandī; p. 307).

The word driyōšīh thus primarily connotes a pious disposition. In the Dēnkard this significant point is stressed in unambiguous terms: “Even a mere pious desire (kāmag) for ‘intense holy indigence’ (abēr driyōšīh), with bare necessities of life, may render one righteous, provided (that) he does not look down on those who are not like him” (i.e., the well-to-do; Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 542). Such sincere longing for driyōšīh is regarded as a potent remedy for adverse circumstances and tribulations because it offers bodily comfort (*āsānīh ī tan), freedom from fear (abēbīmīh), and redemption on the day of reckoning (abēāmā ragīh?; Dēnkard, ed. Madan, pp. 579-80). “Many are (those) whose righteousness is owing to their abundance of wealth, and many whose wickedness (druwandīh) is because of their ‘poverty’” (driyōšīh; Dēnkard 6.283, ed. Madan, p. 534; Shaked, pp. 110-11).

It is enjoined upon the driyōš to instruct the high-ranking (mehān) in the matters of the soul (pad čiš ī ruwān; Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 505; Shaked, pp. 58-59) and upon the nobility (āzād-mardān) and the opulent to hold the “worthy poor” in reverence (burzišn) and redress their grievances (must wizārdan; Dēnkard 6.146, ed. Madan, p. 505; Shaked, pp. 58-59). In any event they are enjoined to take upon themselves their advocacy (driyōšān jādaggōwīh; cf. Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 504; see DĀDWAR, DĀDWARĪH). The driyōš are promised salvation and deliverance from evil in the world to come, provided that they refrain from treating the upper classes and the wealthy with disrespect (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, p. 505; Shaked, pp. 58-59). Severe retribution is in store for those who turn a deaf ear to the complaints of the driyōš (Arda-Wīrāz nāmag; Gignoux, chap. 67), and paradise is promised to those who offer help to the worthy indigent (arzānīgān; Arda-Wīrāz nāmag; Gignoux, chap. 68).

The term driyōš was also used in the sense of “poor” (cf. pad xrad driyōštar “poorer in wisdom”; Mēnōg ī Xrad, chap. 57.22). In this sense it is applied to needy non-Zoroastrians and heretics, who are equally worthy to receive help and protection because liberality toward the poor drives away the demon of want (niyāz) from the world (Dēnkard 6.292, ed. Madan, p. 536; Shaked, pp. 112-13).

From all these pronouncements it is clear that the driyōš were a group within the learned clergy, a group whose members sought spiritual merit and salvation in self-imposed indigence, contentment, abstemiousness, diligence, and amicability toward high and low, a description that would fit as well the early Sufi dervishes of Islam, were it not for the absence of the components of asceticism and the monastic and hermetic life, which were characteristic of Islamic dervish orders.

The virtues attributed to holy poverty are illustrated by a few anecdotes in the Dēnkard. Typical is the story of two learned and pious priests (hērbads) who had chosen to live by their own manual labor, as befitting menials. They not only disdainfully refused the magnanimous gifts of the high priest but even admonished him for his merrymaking and life of luxury (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, pp. 569-70; Shaked, pp. 178-79; cf. Shaki, pp. 277-79). The mode of life of the hermit Ranj-spōz (he who rejects pain), who lived on wild fruit in a cave, seeking salvation in piety (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, pp. 574; Shaked, pp. 186-87), was, on the other hand, “un-Zoroastrian.” It is evidently a fabrication based upon the life of Christian hermits who lived in holy dirt and extreme asceticism, a life totally alien to Zoroastrian precepts, in which every disregard of essential bodily wants is a deviation from the sanctified principle of the mean (paymān). In the Dēnkard (6.282, ed. Madan, pp. 534; Shaked, pp. 108-09) it is explicitly stated: “If the richest person knows how to use and keep (his property), no sin will accrue to him merely on account of his wealth, and if a most indigent person (driyōštar mardōm) does not know the proper way of using and keeping (his property), he may become ‘worthy of death’ (margarzān) through misappropriation of one single drahm.”

It was in the social interest of the privileged classes to appease the dissatisfaction of the underprivileged, some of whom, like the škōh (“the recalcitrant poor”), stood in sharp contrast to driyōš, by excessive praise of the driyōš, stressing the merits of his meekness, contentment, and resignation to fate. The škōh, also unsatisfactorily translated “poor,” is described in the Dēnkard (6.145, ed. Madan, pp. 505; Shaked, pp. 58-59) as “a person to whom the necessary means of subsistence is not enough and (who) is discontented on that account. He considers himself unfortunate, holds the opulent and reputable people in contempt, whereas he himself ceaselessly strives for high reputation and wealth” (see CLASSES iii).